Artillery Drone

Heavy Artillery Drones are Vehicons from the Beast Machines cartoon portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Heavy Artillery Drones are sparkless duplicates of Strika, essentially a mass of troops that she controls. They replaced the Tank Drones towards the end of the battle for Cybertron, following the instatement of Strika and Obsidian as new Vehicon generals.

Fiction

Beast Machines cartoon

Obsidian and Strika's first mission on being brought online involved luring the Maximals into a trap. They were able to lure the six Maximals to an area of Cybertropolis and surround them with Heavy Artillery and Copter Drones. Eventually the foe was forced to the Council Citadel, and Heavy Artillery Drones pursued them inside. It might have ended there, but the interference of the newest Maximal, Botanica, caused the destruction of the drones and the escape of the rest of the Maximals. The Strike The new drones were put to work patrolling the city in search of the Maximals. A trio of them were accompanying Strika when she found Rattrap and Botanica, but all three were quickly destroyed. The Search

While the two generals were coordinating troop movements, Savage creature gave away the position of a small team of Maximals. The Artillery and Copter Drones immediately attacked, but the Maximals were able to destroy a fair few of them before being forced underground. As part of a distraction, Cheetor, Silverbolt and Nightscream later attacked a platoon of Artillery Drones, causing major damage before leading the drone forces on a wild goose chase, while the rest of the Maximals infiltrated the Grand Mal. The Seige

Following Megatron's apparent demise, Strika retained control of her drones. A group of them were destroyed by a reanimated Aero Drone as it opened fire on the two generals after they decided to join the Maximals. Megatron, as it turned out, wasn't as dead as it had appeared, and when he came back on the scene, the two generals and their drones rejoined him. Spark of Darkness

The drones resumed patrolling the city, and production stepped up because Megatron intended to assault the Grand Mal, which the Maximals were occupying. As the combined forces moved into position, a Maximal team caused more chaos on the ground. The drones began the assault anyway, bombarding the ship's shields, until a clue found by Megatron enabled them to modulate their fire to pass through the shields and bring down the ship. The Downward Spiral The drones initiated field repairs before the final attack, giving the Maximals time to get the shield back up, but it was soon brought down again, and the combined drone army engaged the Maximals in combat. Presumably the Heavy Artillery Drones were all deactivated when Strika was shot into space by Cheetor. When Legends Fall